A Carthaginian burial site was not for child sacrifice but was instead a graveyard for babies and fetuses, researchers now say.

A new study of the ancient North African site offers the latest volley in a debate over the primary purpose of the graveyard, long thought to be a place of sacred sacrifice.

"It's all very great, cinematic stuff, but whether that was a constant daily activity ― I think our analysis contradicts that," said study co-author Jeffrey Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh....

Carthage burial grounds called Tophet holds urns with the cremated remains of thousands of babies. While some say Tophet is a site of child sacrifice, others contend it was used to bury babies and fetuses.

3
posted on 09/20/2012 1:14:24 PM PDT
by NYer
(Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)

So, they find the cremated remains of babies with goats, and lambs. And we are supposed to believe that the Carthaginians, who were reported in the Bible to practice child sacrifice to their pagan gods, weren’t really sacrificing anything. They were just participating in sacred burial rituals for all the babies and animals that routinely died.

For a time I lived in Cadiz, Spain. Cadiz is perhaps the oldest continuously occupied city in western Europe having been founded 3,000 years ago by the Phoenicians and occupied ever since. This was the same gang that founded Carthage. In the city is a beautiful plaza the locals called Plaza Flores, the plaza of the flowers. It is full of stands selling bright fresh flowers and others selling the specialty of Cadiz, a medly of fried fish.

Curiously, looking up you will see that the official name is Plaza Topete. Like the location cited in the article here, it was originally the location of a Phoenician temple (tophet) from which it gets it's name. At the site there were the remains of numerous infants. The oral history say this was where the Phoenicians would sacrifice their first born child. Not surprisingly, the citizens prefer to call it the place of flowers rather than by that gruesome reference.

I note the skepticism in the article about human sacrifice, I only note that the site in the article is not unique in reputation.

13
posted on 09/20/2012 1:53:37 PM PDT
by pepsi_junkie
(Who is John Galt?)

The Spartans looked over each newborn child and if it was unhealthy or had any birth defects, they would leave it to die. Only the healthiest and strongest were chosen to live. Just watched a two hour special on the Spartans...very interesting.

The argument against infant sacrifice in the article seems long on conjecture and short on facts. They even argue the Carthaginians wouldn’t waste precious wood on infant sacrifices despite the evidence the bodies were indeed cremated.

I wholeheartedly agree. Those who deny infant sacrifice among the Phoenicians have some kind of agenda, and it probably has to do with the instructions from the local political authorities. Same thing happened with Egypt’s “no slavery in ancient Egypt” requirement. And that one’s clearly ridiculous — “oh, look, we found dozens of bakeries to feed the workers who built the Giza pyramids — that means they weren’t slaves.” Complete stupidity.

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